One of the worst crimes publishing scammers perpetrate on new authors is bullying them into buying junk “book marketing packages.” Often these cost astronomical fees — $10,000 and more.

The useless book marketing the scammers push involve Tweets (which haven’t sold books for over a decade), presence at book fairs (where they will be completely ignored), never-to-be-read news releases sent to random publications, and unwanted missives sent to bookstore owners who will toss them in the bin. Yes, even though the missives are printed on elegant, luxurious stock with gold leaf accents. That’s not how bookstore owners choose their inventory.

There are also paid interviews on podcasts and magazines with no audience, and reviews on sites nobody reads. Some of these places claim they have X number of social media followers, but the “followers” are usually paid for or stolen from Facebook profiles.

But you need marketing!! And you don’t know anything about it. So should you hire somebody?

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